PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF ETHYL ACRYLATE

摘要

IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF ETHYL ACRYLATE A process is provided for the continuous production of ethyl acrylate from ethylene and acrylic acid in the presence of sulfuric acid. The process includes the removal of impurities from the reaction system by passing minor portions of sulfuric acid residue from the process through a wiped-film evaporator whose initial sections are heated to a specific temperature range and whose last or withdrawal section(s) are cooled to a specific temperature range. This treatment prevents foaming of the used sulfuric acid residue. The treated sulfuric acid residue in the wiped-film evaporator is withdrawn from the reaction system. If foaming of the sulfuric acid residue occurs, the foamed residue can back up into the reaction system requiring a shutdown of the entire process. An additional aspect of this process is the passing of at least 50 weight percent of the ethyl acrylate product residue from the finishing distillation tower into the wiped-film evaporator at the same time that the sulfuric acid residue is being treated. The treatment of the ethyl acrylate product residue recovers additional ethyl acrylate product and acrylic acid starting material from the wiped-film evaporator while the remainder of the ethyl acrylate product residue containing polymerization initiators which can cause undesirable polymerized product, is removed from the reaction system.